Anne Marie McDonald

Anne Marie McDonald

(Anne Marie)

CEO, AMMP Growth

Draper · Salt Lake City, Utah

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Speaker levelProfessional Speaker

Primary sectorsArts, culture & creative industries · Healthcare & life sciences · Hospitality & tourism

Utah focusYes

About

Anne Marie Leavitt McDonald is CEO of AMMP Growth and Chair of AMMP Capital, a growth and investment firm for consumer and destination brands including Barry’s, Black Desert, and Knockderry Castle. She helps leadership teams sharpen positioning, grow demand, and build durable engines for growth.

A founder several times over, Anne Marie has built and sold businesses and helps companies prepare for and navigate capital raises, rapid growth, and major transitions. She served on the executive team at venture-backed Gabb Wireless during a period of explosive expansion and co-founded Hycraft Homes, where she raised and deployed investor capital with repeatable returns. At AMMP Growth, she and her team launched products and built an audience of more than one million followers for Knockderry Castle in its first year.

Known for bringing warmth to business, she pairs rigorous strategy with a people-first approach that builds trust and accelerates results.

Read the extended bio

Anne Marie Leavitt McDonald is the CEO of AMMP Growth and Chair of AMMP Capital, where she partners with consumer and destination brands to clarify positioning, spark demand, and build durable engines for long-term growth. Through her work with companies including Barry’s, Black Desert, and Knockderry Castle, she helps leadership teams align brand, capital, and operations to scale.

A founder several times over, Anne Marie has built and sold businesses and guided organizations through capital raises, high-growth seasons, and major transitions. She served on the executive team at venture-backed Gabb Wireless during a period of rapid expansion and later co-founded Hycraft Homes, where she raised and deployed investor capital with repeatable returns. At AMMP Growth, she and her team launched products and built an audience of more than one million followers for Knockderry Castle in its first year.

Anne Marie is known for bringing warmth to business a leadership philosophy that blends clear strategy with a people-first approach to build trust, strengthen culture, and accelerate results. She speaks to founders, executives, and investors about scaling with heart, leading through change, aligning brand and capital, and building teams that thrive in high-performance environments.

She serves on the boards of iKeepSafe, the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute, Old Main Ventures, WikiCharities, the SheTech Advisory Board, and the Jordan Education Foundation.

A graduate of Utah State University, she was named one of Utah Business 30 Women to Watch in 2024 and also serves as a stage host for the Tabernacle Choir, welcoming audiences from all over the world. She treasures time with her husband, Hyrum and their four children.

Speaking formats

Experience level

Professional Speaker

Frequent / professional speaker (10+ speaking engagements in the last 2–3 years)

Topics & expertise

Civic & Community

  • Community organizing & coalition building
  • Cross-sector partnerships (business + government + nonprofit)
  • Nonprofit leadership & governance
  • Philanthropy, fundraising & social impact
  • Serving on boards & commissions

Communication & Storytelling

  • Communicating with frontline employees
  • Communicating with senior leaders / boards
  • Cross-cultural communication
  • Difficult conversations & feedback
  • Digital presence & thought leadership (LinkedIn, etc.)
  • Executive presence (online & in-room)
  • Media training & interviews
  • Personal brand & visibility
  • Public speaking & presentation skills
  • Storytelling for leaders
  • Storytelling with data

Culture/HR & Talent

  • Coaching & mentoring programs
  • Employee engagement & retention
  • Employer brand & employee experience
  • Handling burnout, morale dips & “quiet quitting”
  • Hybrid work, flexibility & future of work
  • Learning & development / leadership pipelines
  • Organizational change & transformation
  • Performance reviews & goal setting (OKRs, KPIs, etc.)
  • Psychological safety & belonging at work

Entrepreneurship & Startups

  • Building an executive team as a founder
  • Family-owned / closely held businesses
  • Funding & capital (VC, angels, bootstrapping)
  • Scaling a startup / growth stage
  • Social entrepreneurship & mission-driven ventures
  • Starting a business
  • Women founders & access to capital

Functional Expertise

  • Communications & PR
  • Marketing & brand strategy
  • Sales & business development
  • Supply chain & logistics

Gender & Equity

  • Building equitable promotion and hiring systems
  • Gender lens on policy & community decisions
  • Inclusive leadership practices
  • Intersectionality (race, gender, class, etc.)
  • Motherhood, caregiving & careers
  • Pay equity & negotiation
  • Return-to-work / re-entry after career breaks
  • Sexual harassment prevention & culture repair
  • Sponsorship, mentorship & allyship
  • Women in leadership / closing the leadership gap
  • Women in tech and STEM
  • Women on boards & commissions
  • “Prove-it-again” bias & promotion barriers

Industry Expertise

  • Arts, culture & creative industries
  • Healthcare & life sciences
  • Hospitality & tourism
  • Manufacturing & supply chain
  • Media, marketing & communications
  • Nonprofit & philanthropy
  • Real estate & development
  • Retail & consumer products

Leadership & Management

  • Board governance & board relations
  • Building high-performing teams
  • C-suite readiness
  • Conflict resolution & mediation
  • Cross-functional collaboration
  • Decision-making & accountability
  • Difficult conversations
  • Executive leadership
  • Giving & receiving feedback
  • Leading remote & hybrid teams
  • Leading through change
  • People management & coaching
  • Performance management
  • Psychological safety & trust
  • Stakeholder management & influence
  • Succession planning & talent pipelines
  • Vision, strategy & execution

Strategy/Innovation & Change

  • Change management & adoption
  • Customer experience & journey mapping
  • Data-informed decision-making
  • Digital transformation
  • Innovation and intrapreneurship
  • Product strategy & product-market fit
  • Risk management & scenario planning
  • Scaling organizations (startup to growth stage)
  • Strategic planning & execution

Technology & Innovation

  • Artificial intelligence & responsible AI
  • Tech careers & pathways for women

Utah & Regional Issues

  • Faith, culture & work in Utah
  • Mountain West / regional issues
  • Utah business & economic landscape
  • Utah tech ecosystem / Silicon Slopes
  • Women’s leadership in Utah

Wellbeing & Personal Growth

  • Boundary-setting & saying no
  • Burnout prevention & recovery
  • Confidence, impostor syndrome & self-advocacy
  • Habit building & personal productivity
  • Mental health at work
  • Mindfulness & stress management
  • Resilience & navigating change
  • Values-based career design
  • Work–life integration

Signature talks

  • Decisions: The Hidden Engine of Your Life
  • Leading Through Change: The Playbook For Brands Facing Pivots
  • The Network: Cultivating Warm Connections in a Room Full of Strangers

Selected engagements

  • Spoken at UVU, USU, UofU ( Ivory Students for the Kem Gardner Board.
  • Women of Deloitte & Bank Of America
  • Boost

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